Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia merges science with human concerns and ideals, examining the universe’s influence in our everyday lives and ultimate fates through relationship between past and present, order and disorder and the certainty of knowledge. Set in an English country house in the year 1809-1812 and 1989, the play examines the lives of two modern scholars and the house's current residents with the lives of those who lived there 180 years earlier.

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Publisher's Summary

Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia merges science with human concerns and ideals, examining the universe’s influence in our everyday lives and ultimate fates through relationship between past and present, order and disorder and the certainty of knowledge. Set in an English country house in the year 1809-1812 and 1989, the play examines the lives of two modern scholars and the house's current residents with the lives of those who lived there 180 years earlier.

Includes an interview with Steven Strogatz, the author of Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos and professor at the Cornell University School of Theoretical and Applied Mathematics.

An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring:

Kate Burton as Hannah

Mark Capri as Chater

Jennifer Dundas as Thomasina

Gregory Itzin as Bernard Nightingale

David Manis as Cpt. Brice

Christopher Neame as Noakes and Jellaby

Peter Paige as Valentine

Darren Richardson as Augustus

Kate Steele as Chloe

Serena Scott Thomas as Lady Croom

Douglas Weston as Septimus

Directed by John Rubinstein. Recorded at the Invisible Studios, West Hollywood.

Arcadia is part of L.A. Theatre Works’ Relativity Series featuring science-themed plays. Major funding for the Relativity Series is provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to enhance public understanding of science and technology in the modern world.

What the Critics Say

“Tom Stoppard’s richest, most ravishing comedy to date. A play of wit, intellect, language, brio and emotion,” and The Royal Institution of Great Britain calls it: “the best science book ever written.” ()The New York Times)

This audible performance of Arcadia is very well acted and produced. My chief criteria for these audible plays are: (1) How closely does the performance stick to the script - i.e. have they omitted a significant portion of the dialog? (2) Sound quality: does it sound like they recorded a live stage performance with a microphone sitting on a corner of the stage, or was it recorded specifically for a listening audience? And do they use sound effects well?

On both accounts this is a high-quality production. It is also a charming, funny and intelligent play.

History, literature, science, gardening...a brilliant girl out of time and some lamebrained literary detective work. Stoppard at the top of his game, and a cast that includes Gregory Itzin, far from the evil Nixonian president he played on 24. You'll never hear the words "carnal embrace" again without giggling, just a little.

I had not read this play before so I was not familiar with the story at all. Therefore, I remained very confused about what the story was about. I couldn't keep track of the characters and their roles, and I kind of lost interest as it wasn't what I was expecting, leading me to replay scenes as my ears turned out. It could be that these types of plays are just not for me.

This dramatization is not quite the playwright's original text, but it takes some helpful artistic liberties that describe scenes and make the unspoken parts of the play flow easily within the dialogue. As far as the play, Stoppard is a master of transforming life's circumstances into math problems. He ruined statistical probability and chance in "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead." He bashed Zeno's Paradox and geometry in "Jumpers." Now thermodynamics and Mandelbrot's fractals fall victim to the wit and genius of Stoppard; telling his love stories and the tragi-comedic foibles of life through the ages, using sex as the chaotic "strange attractor" that ruins the Newtonian universe. I listened to this dramatization, then read the play, then listened again with even more enjoyment. A friend of mine listened to the dramatization before attending a recent performance in New York, and he said that the audio "preview" greatly enhanced his enjoyment of the play itself. Even if you don't know one thing about entropy or self-similarity, this rendition will provide a delightful brain-teaser.

If the interviews that came after the reading had come BEFORE the reading, I'd gotten a lot more of of this -- after all, it's an illustration of chaos theory. I needed a 'heads up'. It is witty, and intellectually stimulating, so I might give it another go.Two sets of characters in two different time periods are hard to follow by ear alone, unless the performances are carefully designed to be easily distinguishable.

There are some very good things about this recording. It's clear, entrances and exits are by and large well delineated. It makes sense, allowing for the complexity and farcical nature of the narrative. The fact that a significant character who never speaks may or may not be in the room is a problem for any audio adaptation.

It is unfortunate, however, that a very significant character bears the surname Nightingale. Pronounced in English English with almost equal stress on all 3 syllables, pronounced by these actors as a dactyl (NITE-n-gale) with the last two syllables swallowed. Consequently, every time the character is referred to, I wince, and that, and other pronunciation infelicities, makes this an unhappy listening experience. I suppose if you don't know it's wrong, it doesn't matter. Maybe calling General Powell COLL-INN, not colon, seems very wrong to American listeners.

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Hobhood

9/5/14

Overall

Performance

Story

"Difficult subject matter, and a bit mis-cast."

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

While this witty and erudite play text provides both entertainment and intellectual challenge, problems with the production rather spoiled my enjoyment.

What was your reaction to the ending? (No spoilers please!)

This isn't really relevant to a drama text.

What aspect of the narrators’s performance might you have changed?

Well, this isn't an audiobook, but an audio production of a play, so there are multiple voices. Here lies my main problem. As a UK listener, I could not suspend my disbelief in the English accents of some of the American actors playing British roles. They weren't terrible, and a US listener might not have a problem with this aspect of the performance. However, it is not just a matter of pronunciation or vowel sounds. Sentences were stressed in an unidiomatic way, and meaning was sometimes lost.There are some complex mathematical and intellectual ideas presented here, so clarity of meaning is important.

The play is split into two time frames, that of the 18th century juxtaposed with a modern setting. It seems to me that the actors chosen for the 18th century sections were native Brits (or if not, American actors with impeccable accents and delivery.) The contemporary sections are voiced with American actors who can't quite get it right. The production also sounds under-rehearsed in the contemporary sections, with some rather emotionally unvaried performances.

There are also some visual effects which are hard to reproduce in audio format, which could have been edited out.

I have listened to many LA Theatre Works offerings and they are generally excellent. Even the Ayckbourn plays with mixed US/British casts are almost completely convincing. This was a disappointment.

Was Arcadia worth the listening time?

Not entirely. This is a stimulating but complex text which is nearly 3 hours in length. It needs better acting and direction in parts to justify the committment from the listener.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

B. Koo

Seoul, Korea, South

8/20/13

Overall

Performance

Story

"A great play well performed"

Would you consider the audio edition of Arcadia (Dramatized) to be better than the print version?

Although the question of comparing a printed version to the audio edition is somewhat strange, as it is a play, I prefer the audio version of Arcadia.

Any additional comments?

A great, great play - heartily recommended. Stoppard at his finest.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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